


I Woke Up in a Safe House

by haraya



Series: My Weary Heart Has Come to Rest in Yours [4]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Established Relationship, Female Apprentice (The Arcana), Fluff, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Polyamory, Romance, Smut, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:26:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22362556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haraya/pseuds/haraya
Summary: Five times Asra thinks about marriage, and the one time he actually does something about it.
Relationships: Apprentice/Asra/Muriel (The Arcana)
Series: My Weary Heart Has Come to Rest in Yours [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1371493
Comments: 18
Kudos: 141





	I Woke Up in a Safe House

**Author's Note:**

> New year new content!! Have some happiness.
> 
> Title is from the song ["Let's Get Married" as covered by Mitski.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i8b2GgJb5VQ)

i.

Asra's parents have found a new house in the city.

It's not nearly as grand or as luxurious as their quarters in the Palace, but it's closer to the shop, and therefore to him. They pack their things and take their leave from Nadia's hospitality with profuse gratitude, and the promise to report back to the Palace whenever she needs her court magicians.

He helps them move in. They'd already had the furniture and other necessities delivered, but it all still needs unpacking, and the house needs cleaning, and the stairs leading down to the garden out back need fixing—

And it surprises him (even though it really shouldn't have, knowing them as he does), when Muriel and Rei tag along, Muriel with his tools and Rei with some seedlings for the garden.

He leaves them resting in the backyard for a bit while he goes to grab them snacks from the kitchen. But he stops just around the corner, peering through the doorway to watch his mom smiling fondly as she wipes a bit of grease from his dad's cheek, presumably from when he'd been oiling the hinges on the bedroom doors.

Asra smiles to himself, lingering in the hallway to let his parents have their moment, and when he looks back out at the garden, he sees almost the exact same thing: Muriel running a thumb across Rei's cheek to wipe off a bit of dirt, and Rei surprising him with a kiss to the palm of his hand. Her laughter carries down the hallway as Muriel sputters, flustered into an adorable shade of red.

Faust, curled around Asra's shoulders, butts her head affectionately against his jaw.

 _Happy_ , she says, squeezing him in a serpentine hug.

"Yeah," he answers, feeling a ridiculous smile stretch across his face and not caring one bit. _"Yeah."_

He leans against the wall and sighs, content, listening to the nostalgic sound of his dad's laughter echo from the kitchen. He remembers watching his parents just like this in a different house, a different life, and had wanted what they had for himself before he even fully understood what that meant.

And it's the best feeling in the world, to finally have it all now—people to love; a place to call home; and the singular pleasure of waking up in a shared bed, feeling safe and happy and loved.

He looks back into the kitchen, watching as his father kisses the ring on his mother's left hand, and he thinks, _Maybe even that, too._

_(Someday.)_

\---

ii.

Nadia looks _stunning_ in her wedding dress.

So does Tana, beaming under her indigo veil as Nadia kisses her beneath a canopy dripping with white jasmine and orchids. They look so _ethereal_. A gentle summer breeze flutters the gauzy white fabric adorning the canopy posts, and it looks like something out of a classic painting, or a fairytale, complete with happily ever after. It's almost unbelievable, how two such lovely people manage to find each other and end up being the perfect pair.

But maybe not so unbelievable. Asra looks at Muriel and Rei beside him, dressed in the soft hues of spring as they applaud the Countess and her new Consort—

—and he thinks he has never seen anything lovelier.

And they're each other's, as much as they are his and he is theirs, and he wonders if maybe lovely people have a way of finding one another, or if people just grow lovelier the more they are loved.

His heart swells, and he thinks that for how much he loves them, it's no wonder Rei and Muriel are the most beautiful people in the world.

(And he thinks, too, of how much more beautiful they would be, standing under a canopy of white flowers, just waiting to be kissed.)

\---

iii.

Asra chokes awake on a stormy autumn night, a sob dying in his throat as he wrenches himself from the throes of an old nightmare.

Muriel is already awake, running a gentle hand over Asra's sweaty hair. On Muriel's other side, Rei takes a deep breath as she stirs, blearily blinking away sleep.

"What's wrong?" she asks, disoriented.

Asra's eyes snap to her face, trying to place her features in the dim light. It's hard to focus. The storm is too loud. The world feels like it's spinning too fast, still.

"She's right here," Muriel murmurs reassuringly. 

Asra's wild gaze slides over from Rei to Muriel, whose green eyes go soft and shadowed in the dark. He places a warm hand on Asra's nape, cradling the back of his head, and adds, "I am, too."

Rei's eyes finally soften in understanding as she looks back at Asra across the expanse of Muriel's chest.

"Nightmare?" she asks, even though she already knows the answer, running light fingertips down his cheek. "Want me to make some tea?"

Asra concentrates on their hands, their voices, and slowly, slowly, the storm outside and the thoughts in his head grow a little quieter.

"Okay," he says at last, and, with a kiss for him and a kiss for Muriel, Rei rolls out of bed and heads for the kitchen. She lights the lamps as she goes, and in the soft golden glow that fills their home, the world seems to put itself back to rights.

Muriel carefully sits them both up, settling Asra in his lap as they wait for Rei to come back. The rain sounds gentler now, almost apologetic.

"Do they ever stop, do you think?" Asra asks, leaning heavily against Muriel's broad shoulder.

Muriel tucks Asra's head under his chin and rubs a hand down his back. "The nightmares?"

Asra nods. Muriel is quiet for a long moment, before he admits, "They haven't yet." 

They listen for a moment to the sound of metal clinking against ceramic in the kitchen. So domestic. So _normal_. A soundtrack for ordinary people in an ordinary house, with ordinary lives and ordinary tragedies. 

"But," Muriel adds, "it's gotten easier. Waking up." A pause. "Being awake."

Asra looks at Muriel's face, at his scars stark white in the lamplight, and then at Rei coming back from the kitchen, with less than four years' worth of living in her memories. He wonders if they would've been happier, being ordinary.

But then again, _ordinary_ wouldn't have gotten them here: Muriel stroking his back in tender motions; Rei setting down a tray on the windowsill before climbing back into bed beside them. Three mugs, still faintly steaming; chamomile with lemon and honey. The flicker of golden lamplight; the faint scent of lavender incense wafting through the room. The gentle patter of autumn rain on the window as they huddle together in the quiet.

And ordinary wouldn't have gotten them _here:_ Muriel out of the woods, a friendly if quiet figure to the kids on their street, with a helping hand always ready for their neighbors whose homes need repairs; Rei alive and well and _thriving_ , sure in her work and in herself, reclaiming the parts of her past worth keeping without letting it weigh her down.

And himself: putting down roots, rebuilding bridges, settling comfortably into the warmth of a love that feels like home.

And it feels good.

It feels _right._

( _Ordinary_ could never be so good as this.)

"Need anything else?" Rei asks, her legs pressed against his.

Asra takes a sip of his tea, warm and sweet and perfect.

"Let's just stay like this," he says. _Today and tomorrow and always,_ he thinks.

Rei smiles; kisses his nose while Muriel drops a kiss to the top of his head, his hand still rubbing circles into Asra's back.

"Sounds good," Rei says.

(And Asra thinks, wistful: _It really does._ )

\---

iv.

Asra moans, long and low, and Rei answers him with a soft breath of a laugh, her hand snaking around his neck to tug him closer. He collapses against her chest, his arms too weak to hold himself up, and buries his face against her shoulder, letting out another drawn-out moan.

Rei's hips, propped up by a pillow wedged underneath her, are flush against his own, and when she cants upwards to take him fully inside her, Muriel, kneeling behind him, thrusts in at the same time, syncing their movements to drive Asra to the very height of pleasure. Asra chokes on a gasp as Muriel's cock hits right at that spot inside him, making him arch his back, pushing his ass into Muriel's steady hands in a silent plea for more.

 _"Muh_ —Muri," Asra whines, high and breathless, "Rei—loves, _please—"_

Rei smiles against his temple, her mouth the same crescent curve of the hazy spring moon shining through the window.

"Good?" she purrs, winding teasing fingers into his hair, tugging lightly.

It's _too_ good. It's _maddening_ —skin dragging on skin; Muriel's thumbs rubbing circles onto his hips; Rei's fingers curling in the hair at his nape. The fullness of having Muriel's cock inside him. The tight heat of Rei's cunt around his length.

(And somehow he wants them even closer still; wants his forever to be just like this; wants to stretch out this moment into an eternity of heat and thudding heartbeats and the sweetness of _I love you_ hanging on the tip of his tongue.)

And he'd _tell_ them that, if only pleasure didn't blank his mind, leaving only enough room for a wordless groan as Muriel rolls his hips again, thrusting in slow but deep. He feels Rei's laugh tremble through her, pressed against her as he is, and behind him, Muriel's quiet chuckle rumbles through his chest as he drapes himself over Asra's back, trapping him between the sweat-slick heat of their bodies as they thoroughly set to wrecking him.

_"Oh, fffuck—"_

Asra bites his lip against the wanton mewl that bubbles in his throat. It's not a punishing pace, or even a particularly fast one, but they move with such intent to pleasure him, to stoke the fire of need growing rapidly inside him, and it makes his head spin in the best possible way. Not just the way they fuck him, too—Muriel's lips are warm, tenderly brushing the skin behind Asra's ear, and Rei's mouth explores the column of his neck, dragging her teeth lightly along the side of it before she latches onto a particularly sensitive spot and sucks.

The cry that he'd been holding back bursts out in a desperate, throaty groan, his hands clawing at the sheets as he teeters just on the edge of release.

 _"Loves—"_ he says, begging now, trying to move between them, uncertain whether he wants to fuck himself on Muriel's cock or fuck into Rei's cunt, knowing only that he needs more friction, more contact, just— _more._ "Muri, Rei, please, I'm—my loves, I'm so close, I'm so, _so_ close, _please—"_

Rei smiles into his shoulder, kissing the spot she'd been sucking on— _she'd left a mark, he's sure of it_ —and reaches around him to tap Muriel's arm.

"Now?" Muriel asks, slowing down his pace just a little, but enough that the lessened stimulation makes Asra keen, frantic and desperate to come.

Rei shushes him, pressing a comforting kiss to his jaw, then nods, and Muriel grips Asra's hips tighter, pressing him forward and down so he's flush against Rei, his cock fully sheathed inside her. And then Muriel begins to drive into him with purpose, hard and fast, angling his hips so he's hitting Asra's prostate with every thrust.

His mewling cries come in a staccato beat, pleasure building and building low in his belly before it finally gives, and he tips over the edge and headlong into sweet release. He's only half aware of a moan sounding behind him, too lost in bliss to fully register Muriel spilling into him as he too finishes with a low sound in his throat, excess come dripping down Asra's thighs. He feels more than sees Muriel's hand snake between where he and Rei are pressed against each other, feels Muriel stroke quick circles over her clit until she comes with Asra still inside her, her walls tightening around his cock, pushing him just over the line of oversensitive.

He's still shaking when Muriel pulls out, still trying to catch his breath when Rei rolls him over so he lands gently on his side onto the mattress. Muriel fetches a towel to clean the slick between Asra's legs, and when he's finished, he does the same for Rei, and receives a giggly kiss for his trouble.

Asra watches with a dazed smile as Rei snatches the towel away, distracting Muriel with another kiss so she can help him clean up, too. She tosses it carelessly aside afterwards, instead coaxing Muriel to settle behind Asra, his long arm draping across Asra's waist to rest with his hand at the small of Rei's back. She pulls a blanket over them all to ward off the lingering chill of the early spring night, but Asra thinks, hazily, that he could survive from the warmth of their love alone. He closes his eyes, relishing the nearness of them, the tender kisses they press onto his shoulder, his neck, his temple.

"How are you feeling?" Rei asks, her nose skimming a line down his throat. "Good?"

"Mm," Asra hums contentedly, all blissed out. "Can I stay here forever?"

(He means it in more ways than one.)

Rei's laugh puffs warm against his skin as she presses closer, crowding him back against Muriel's chest. Asra shifts only slightly, making himself comfortable, and soon enough he falls asleep to soft whispers of _I love you_ , cradled in the warmth of his lovers' tender embrace.

\---

v.

Asra stirs awake on an early summer morning to the welcome weight of Muriel's arm slung across his waist. He opens his eyes, blinking in the light of sunrise, and smiles.

(Nearly a year of quiet mornings, of wake-up kisses, of tangled limbs in rumpled sheets, and he _still_ feels like the luckiest person in the world.)

It's rare that he wakes up first. He's more usually the one convincing them to stay in bed for five, ten, thirty more minutes. But it's nice, seeing his partners relaxed in sleep, safe and warm in the comfort of their shared bed and each other's arms.

In this moment, time seems to grow sluggish, stretching itself out like honey dripping golden from the spoon, matching itself to the languid rise and fall of Muriel's chest beneath Rei's arm as she sleeps pressed against his back. The cuckoo clock on the shelf ticks steadily away; dust motes drift gently down in the yellow spill of sunlight streaming through the open window. Even the gently billowing curtains seem to slow, their lazy sway almost hypnotic as Asra counts the shadows of Muriel's lashes feathering across his cheek.

And he's lost in love, looking at them—the mess of Muriel's morning hair, falling into his eyes; the relaxed curl of Rei's slim fingers against the trail of hair leading down Muriel's navel. The shape of Rei's thigh wrapped around Muriel's hip. The spot of sunlight on Muriel's shoulder, just begging to be kissed.

So Asra does, rising onto his arm to press his mouth to the smooth curve of Muriel's shoulder, lips twitching into a smile as Muriel's brow furrows, eyelids fluttering before cracking open the slightest bit.

"Morning," Asra breathes against his skin.

Muriel blinks a few times, yawns, then peers at Asra through half-lidded eyes, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Morning," Muriel says, and Rei must feel the quiet rumble of it through his back, because she makes a sleepy noise, smooshing her face between his shoulder blades.

Asra laughs—still slow, still quiet like the early hour—and reaches across Muriel to push Rei's hair away from her eyes.

"Morning," he tells her, leaning over to kiss her temple.

 _"Mmuh,"_ she says, a long, drawn-out hum that sounds like it could've been _Morning_ but feels, in the golden glow of sunrise, a little like _Love you, too_ _._

Asra huffs another quiet laugh and settles on his side with his chin propped in his hand. "Well," he says, "aren't you two a lovely sight this morning?"

Muriel smiles, eyes still closed, thumb tracing circles into Asra's hip. "We're like this _every_ morning," he says. "You're just never awake to see it."

"Well I'm awake _now,"_ Asra counters. 

"For once."

 _"And_ there's always tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after _that."_ He looks at them, peaceful and content in the rumpled sheets and the morning sun, and thinks: _And the endless tomorrows that come after that, if you let me._

He hears Rei snort from behind Muriel. "I'd like to see that," she challenges, voice still rough with sleep.

_(Me too. Me too. Just say the word.)_

"Wanna bet on it?" Asra says instead. "Loser gives the winner a kiss."

Rei laughs, and Muriel gives a soft snicker, tugging Asra back against his chest with a fondly exasperated, "Just get back here."

The hand Rei has on Muriel's stomach slides to the jut of Asra's hip, and he thinks, as he settles back against the warmth of them, that if he loses the bet every day for the rest of his life, he'll still come out the winner.

\---

i.

It's spring. They're headed south, on a more leisurely trip than the one Rei and Muriel had taken more than a year ago, at the start of it all.

(And Asra remembers the fear, and the worry, and the sheer _loneliness_ of being left behind at the palace, but he remembers, too, what came after, what led to the here-and-now, and he wouldn't change it for the world.)

He wades in the shallows of the stream they'd stopped beside for their midday meal. Faust is wrapped around his shoulders, basking in the sun while he stands and breathes and feels the flow of the water rushing around his legs. Overhead, the wild apple trees lining the banks release their flowers to the gentle breeze, their sweet scent filling his lungs when he takes a deep breath. 

It's a lovely day. Warm sun, cloudless skies, a soft breeze. The water is cool and clear around his feet. He turns to ask Rei and Muriel if they want to go for a swim—

—and he stops.

And stares.

_(And falls in love for the ten thousandth time.)_

Rei is sitting on the grass, soaking her feet in the water, cradling her chin in her hands as she watches Muriel weave a flower crown from the apple blossoms cascading down on the spring breeze. When he's finished, he sets it gently atop her head, fixing it just so against her dark hair. She beams, tucking a stray blossom behind his ear, and laughs when Muriel's cheeks turn an endearing shade of red.

And Asra's heart starts beating something fierce in his chest—a thundering, near-painful drumbeat of _I love yous_ battering against his ribcage, demanding to be let out.

 _Stars,_ but he loves them. He'd love them forever, given the chance.

(He thinks maybe he'd love them forever still, even if he wasn't.)

His days with them have been so _full_ that each one feels like a lifetime in itself—

—and yet not nearly long enough.

"Hey," he finds himself saying suddenly, hands in his pockets. "Let's get married."

A pause. A moment of stillness; the world holding its breath. Muriel and Rei sit frozen on the grassy bank, twin expressions of shock on their faces. Falling apple blossoms seem to hang suspended in the air. But Asra's pulse keeps thudding away; his too-loud heartbeat the only thing that marches on in the otherwise motionless interlude.

And then—Rei and Muriel share a _look._ Slowly, a faint smile tugs at the corner of Muriel's mouth, and at the sight of it, Rei's lips twitch upwards before a grin breaks across her face like a swift sunrise.

And then she's running full-tilt toward Asra, every step a loud splash in the water, and he finds himself tackled by an armful of delighted Rei, her flower crown askew on her head as she nuzzles, still laughing, into his shoulder. They'd have both fallen into the stream had Muriel not been right behind her, catching Asra by the arms and pulling them both against his chest. A quiet huff sounds above their heads as Muriel looks down at them, a soft smile on his mouth and a fond light in his green, green eyes.

Rei kisses Asra's jaw, her hands curling in the fabric of his shirt. _"Yes."_

Asra swallows. "You mean—?"

Another soft huff, and Muriel leans down to kiss Asra's temple. "Let's get married."

There's another pause, another moment of stillness while Asra's head catches up to his heart. And then he's laughing, head tilted back to the blue sky, and under a rain of white flowers he kisses and kisses and kisses them until they're all smiling too wide to kiss properly.

(And he was right. They've never looked more beautiful.)


End file.
